Church of St Romald

Details

ROMALDKIRK MIDDLE GREEN NY 9922 (North side, off) Church of St. Romald 29/164 Inset 12/1/67 (Formerly listed as Church of St Romald I the Hermit)

Parish church. Late C12-C16 incorporating Saxon masonry: late C12-early C13 nave; late C13 south aisle and south transept; c.1330 north aisle and north transept rebuilt; c.1360 chancel and north vesirji C15 tower; C16 north wall of vestry rebuilt; chancel restored 1890-4; organ chamber added 1929. Dressed and rubble sandstone; graduated green slate roofs. West tower; aisled nave with north and south transepts and south porch; chancel with north vestry and organ chamber. Transitional nave arcades and Perpendicular tower.

3-stage tower has stepped diagonal buttresses; 3-light Perpendicular west window to 1st stage; scattered slit openings above; 2-light mullioned-and-transomed bell openings with cinquefoil heads; embattled parapet with worn gargoyles and later corner pinnacles. 3-bay nave has steeply-pitched roof. 4-bay chancel; stepped buttresses with crocketed pinnacles divide bays (central and south-east buttresses have ogee niches); south side has three 2-light windows with Geometrical-tracery, restored low-side window and priest's doorway; 3-light window with Reticulated tracery in wider east bay; diagonally-buttressed east end has 5-light window with odd tracery combining Geometrical and Perpendicular styles; steeply-pitched roof. South aisle: angle-buttressed returns; Y-tracery and lancet windows; pointed doorway of 2 chamfered orders with single flanking colonnettes and a pair of boarded doors with C17 ironwork; low-pitched roof behind solid parapet. South porch has stone side benches and a low-pitched roof. South transept is one bay wide and 2 bays deep: angle buttresses; 5-light south window with odd Geometrical tracery; 2 Y-tracery windows on east return; low-pitched roof behind solid parapet. North aisle:blocked pointed doorway to west; restored lancets to east; buttressed bay divisions; 2-light square-headed window with Reticulated tracery to west return; low-pitched roof. North transept, similar to south transept, has 3-light pointed north window with 2 tiers of reticulation and an embattled transom; 3-light square-headed window with Reticulated tracery to east return; low-pitched roof. 3-bay organ chamber with one-bay vestry to east. Vestry has 2-light square-headed window, stepped buttresses and a monopitch roof with overlapping coping stones.

Interior. Nave: arcade columns with moulded bases and octagonal capitals (that to north-east with flat-leaf, decoration) support semicircular arches of 2 stepped orders under chamfered hoodmoulds; keeled responds; north-west column with fragmentary painting of St. Mark; evidence of long-and-short work flanking chancel arch. Chancel: pointed arch of 2 hollow-chamfered orders with fragment of spiral rood stair and stoup to north; small squint and square window of vestry at east end of north wall; double piscina with cinquefoil-headed niches under crocketed ogee arch in south wall; Italian marble floor of 1890. South transept, formerly a chantry chapel to St. Thomas, has 2 piscinae and an aumbry. Tower: pointed arch of 2 chamfered orders dying into walls; stone vault with 8 radiating ribs and a central ring. Roofs may incorporate some original timber work.

Fittings and monuments: tall grave slab with incised cross inserted into blocked north door; recumbent straight-legged stone effigy of Hugh Fitz Henry died 1305, in chain mail and holding shield, on chest tomb in north transept; probably C12 font; at west end of south aisle, has a circular bowl with 3 tiers of horseshoe- shaped leaf decoration, on a base with 4 attached colonnettes (probably C17 ogival wood font cover); late C15 fragments of Newlyn grave slab with matrix, built into-chancel north wall; circa 1728 panelled oak pulpit (originally part of a three-decker) has an octagonal tester and a staircase with turned balusters and a ramped handrail, tripartite reading desk section now at west end of north aisle; several good C18 wall monuments: to Joseph Heaton died 1750 and to Georgio Ledgard died 1727 (both on chancel-north wall), 4 monuments to members of the Maire family in north transept (including one to Thomas Maire died 1752 and signed by Wm. Palmer).

(The Victoria History of the Counties of England, ed. William Page F.S.A., A History of the County of York North Riding, 1925).

Listing NGR: NY9952022129

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

111337

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of York: North Riding, (1914)

End of official list entry

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